Bargain Shopping 101 (Part 1 of 3): Online Shopping Tips

I live near the foothills of Mt. Makiling, and my husband is allergic to the MMDA. Ergo, when I crave for unique, un-generic stuff ASAP, online shopping is the way to go. Usually, online shops sell things at a cheaper price because 1) Tipid na sila sa rental ng pwesto; 2) Tipid sa kuryente (aircon, etc.); 3) Tipid sa salesladies; and 4) The competition is stiff. Usually one product, andaming nagtitinda. Pababaan ng presyo ang labanan. But before you bid on an item on eBay or order something from an online shop, take these into consideration:

Be very careful when ordering shoes and clothing. I almost never order shoes and clothes online. Minsan kasi even though the size is correctly stated hindi pa rin kasya. Minsan relative ‘yung “Small”. Like in shoes: minsan keri ang length pero yung width hindi. In the end, masakit sa paa. Malabapor pa naman ang width ng paa ko.
Sa blouses naman, ganun din. Some sellers would say, “Medium”, but what exactly is “Medium”? Minsan masikip ang kili-kili, masikip sa may boobs (or in my case,maluwang lagi. hehe). Another criterion you should ask is the fabric. There are sooooo many clothes with really gorgeous designs that might just sit in your closet. Why? Kasi matigas ang tela o mainit. I have become cautious about my clothes’ fabric. Minsan if the fabric is synthetic bumabaho pa rin kahit wala namang BO ang wearer. So you should really check these out before money down. If the seller is lazy or becomes masungit because of these legit questions, kalimutan mo na. Kaya ako dati I balmost exclusively buy from amazon.com (and have it shipped to my mother-in-law’s US address, then isasabay sa balikbayan box) The description of items are really detailed, pati pictures iba-iba ang view para ma-imagine mo how it would look on you. But ever since my mother-in-law went back to the Philippines my amazon.com shopping went kaput. Good thing nagka–Zalora tayo! It’s just like amazon.com: very detailed descriptions, pictures of item in several angles, and you could even write a feedback! Aaaand, FREE SHIPPING pa plus there’s a 30 DAYS FREE RETURN!!!

– Laser Teeth Whitening: The claim was that this supposedly cost P25,000 but with this “deal”, P2,000 na lang! San ka pa ‘di ba? I bought for Randy and me. It was very painful by the way…mas masakit pa kesa nung nanganak ako! Then in the end, we learned na ‘yung P25,000 pala may kasamang products kit napang-maintain at pampa-whiten pa ng teeth further at home! Eh ‘yung P2,000 walang kasamang kit. If we buy, we will have to pay an additional P15,000. Oo, nakamura pa rin kami BUT the savings claim was misleading.
– Bang’s Tony & Jackey Digiperm: The claim was 50-60% savings. Weeks before I had a digiperm I visited a Bang’s T&J salon first. I asked about the price and all. They said that are packages and all para makamura. Then I mentioned the MetroDeal deal. The receptionist said, “Ay Ma’am lalo kayo mapapamahal dun…’yung gamot kasi na andun ordinary lang. Tapos digiperm lang ‘yun walang tretment, e kelangan po talaga may treatment. Mas maganda pa po itong mga packages na ito.” See?!?

– Palawan Trip: My friend said that after purchasing a Palawan package online, biglang hindi na ma-contact ‘yung travel agency. As in wala nang sumasagot. So instead of being able to save, she and her friends just incurred additional expenses. In fairness, I think there are legit deals from MetroDeals and Ensogo rin naman. But I don’t want to take chances anymore. Me thinks that when I complain, they’d just do a Jinggoy…you know the “We’re not obliged to check NGOs getting pork” na sagot. But they SHOULD. They SHOULD also help clients get their money back.

There are several fake sellers. Yes, fake as in they have photos of items YET they do not have them. Once you pay, goodbye money na lang. You have no way of tracing their identities. Luckily, this has never happened to me. It’s wise and prudent to check for feedback. On eBay, remember to check their feedback as a SELLER. Baka ‘yung puro positive feedback ay as a BUYER lang.

There are several dishonest sellers.Naku, ako nabiktima na. I used to be naive and thought that if a seller swears that his/her product is 100% AUTHENTIC and may mga positive feedbacks, go na. Kwento ko sa inyo ‘yung instances na nagoyo ako:

– The fake bags scam:Nakwento ko na ‘to. Buti I did not buy. But this is super common. Even in the US and other countries. Check The Purse Forum and you would see that there are sooo many sellersw of fake bags. I’m a kuripot bag hag but no matter how kamukha a replica bag is to the real thing, I can’t bring myself to buy a bag I know is fake. Basta hindi ko talaga kaya. Actually, this blog (I) was offered to do an advertorial about a website selling fake bags. No second thoughts, hindi ko pinatos. After fake people, I hate fake bags the most.

– The fake Skip Hop products: This happened only recently. As in just a few months ago, when Raviv was still super obsessed with dinosaurs. I was following this online seller on Instagram. I saw she was selling Skip Hop bags with dinosaur design. Since bags ‘yun, na-excite ako. And I knew Randy would have approved, because Raviv would surely love the bag.

Let me share with you our conversation over Viber, and you be the judge:

O what can you say? It’s not as though I did not do my homework: I verified the authenticity of the items. She knew I did not want Class A…that I wanted the real thing! In fairness, she refunded the money. E pa’no pala if I weren’t discerning ‘di ba?
If you’re a mom looking for a reliable online seller, I highly recommend Baby Super Centre. The owner, Candice Cocuaco-Chan, is super nice! I “met” Candice when Randy and I were newlyweds at an online forum about mineral make-ups.

The other girls on the forum were stuck-up—‘yun bang they’d make you feel so stupid when you ask something about mineral make-up, porke’t mukhang ni-devote na nila ang buhay nila sa mga make-up na ‘yun. It was only Candice who answered my questions patiently and nicely. Then she introduced me to the mineral make-up foundie and make-up brushes she was using. Until now, they’re still what I use (the foundie and brushes). I’m more than satisfied! Even when Can was in China, she’d update me kung anu-anong good, cheap finds dun. Then when I got preggy, very supportive pa rin s’ya. She was the one who introduced me to cloth diapers at kung anu-ano pang good novelty items for babies na wala sa SM. And the nice thing about her pa is that she’s super OC. As in. Kahit siguro 0.000000001% lang na toxic material ang meron sa isang baby stuff ayaw na n’ya. Kaya halos lahat ng stuff ni Raviv online, galing sa kanya. And honestly, lahat maganda ang quality. Hanggang ngayon buhay pa. Now that she’s also a mom herself, her products have more variation, I want to buy everything!

– The Hoodia slimming capsules scam: This happened to me on GirlTalk. There was a thread about the slimming benefits of Hoodia. One girl posted she’s selling Hoodia capsules. Nung una deadma. And then someone posted that she bought these Hoodia capsules from the aforementioned seller. She would update us basically everyday about her amazing weight loss. All praises sa Hoodia and all. So I and other GirlTalkers were encouraged to buy. We believed her because based on her status, she’s not a newbie to the forum. But several days has passed, yet none of us seemed to lose weight. The girl (doing the testi) encouraged us to buy green tea caps from the same seller; that way, the effect would be faster. At this point, I started to have doubts. I and the other girls on the forum did some sleuthing and SURPRISE!!! We found out that the girl selling Hoodia and the girl who was raving Hoodia were the same! Grabe!!! Lahat kami nagalit. We asked for our money back but she said she would give our money back lang daw if we return the unused Hoodia caps. Hassle pa pa-ship pabalik sa kanya. At malay ko ba kung isosoli n’ya talaga pera ko. I just charged it to experience.

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Let not this blog entry dissuade you from online sellers 100%. There are a LOOOOOT of legit online sellers with amazing products. But as in any trade, there are honest and dishonest sellers. You’d be surprised that even in SM, there are some salesladies who were dishonest. I’ll share it with you in the next installment of this series. 🙂

If you have more tips, I and other readers would surely appreciate it. Kindly comment them below. 🙂 Thanks in advance!

Comments

Thanks for sharing this informative post Dew! We really need to be careful when shopping online. I’ve had my share of weird experiences with Metrodeal. So far I haven’t had problems with Taste Central and Groupon.Aimee Diego recently posted..Palarong Pinoy + Food Biz

After our last purchase from a groupon deal, Khan asked me to opt out from all email notification ng mga buying site 😐 minsan kasi, instead of makatipid, mas nadodouble pa yung gastos because of misleading information. One tip though, if you have a hunch that a deal is too good to be true, more often than not, it is 🙂

There are still some legit sellers out there. Some, even how small their shops are, still manages to have it registered to DTI. Mine is not yet though.. Ahem. Makiplug ba?! 🙂 lol

I did not like the last groupon purchase I made. I only buy online from people I personally know. Especially clothes. Dapat alam kong fashionista din yung seller. Natawa ako sa amou kilikili fabric. I know what you mean!!! Thanks the tips Dew!Maggie recently posted..The Heartbreaker